St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-03-17
The Commissioner of the General Land
Office Exceedingly Wroth Over
Current Canard,
Which Alleges That he Is Booming Him
self and Gov. Hill for the Ticket
in 1888.
He Denounces the Report, and Says q
Few w ords About Lawyer
Frank Hurd.
That Endicott Rumor The Fight
Against Randan--Our New
Cruisers.
Special 10 the Globe

Special TO the Globe.
WASHINGTON, March 16.-Consi6erable
sensation was created here in official circles
to-02y by the announcement in local pa
per that Commissioner Sparks, Of the gen.
eral land office, has come out strongly tor
Gov. David Is. Hill, Of New York, as the
next presidential candidate of the Demo-
cratic party, with Mr.. Sparks for the second
place on the ticket. 1t was asserted that
the commissioner had sent the letters to
prominent politicians i'll the state of New
ork, and among others who had secured
such an Endorsement of Hill was Edward
). Stokes, who shot jim Fisk several years
ago, and who now conducts the
Hoffman house. EX-RepreSentative
Frank Hurd, of Ohio. was quoted
as authority for the existence
OF the letters and was made to say that his
client, Mr.. Stokes. had such documents in
his possession, but he could not or would
not tell whether they were addressed to
Gov. Hill personally or to some friend in
New York; furthermore that important
matters in which MesSrs, John w. Mackay
and Stokes were interested were mentioned
as pending before the land office, and moth
ing would be done in regard to the publica-
tion OF Commissioner Sparks letters unless
his consent and that of Mr.. Hurd's clients
was first obtained. Armed with this infor-
nation your correspondent sought Commits
Sioner Sparks at the interior department
and found him i'll Secretary Lamar's room
talking to Assistant Secretary Muldrew,
and Representative Payson. Subsequently
Secretary Lamar joined the party and the
commissioner
SPOKE HIS MIND
very freely on the subject that he was be-
ing questioned about.
You can say,' remarked Sparks, ''that if
such letters are in existence they are base
forgerieS, and manufactured out of whole
cloth. l have bad no occasion to write any
such communication to Gov. Hill, or any one
else in New York, and l would like this de-
NAL to have the widest circulation. There is
subtractum of truth in the newspaper arti-
Gle TO which my attention has been called, and
that is in regard to Mr.. Hurd being the attor-
ney in case now pending before my office.
He is the representative of the Nevada bank
in claim growing out of certain surveys of
public lands made by John A. Benson in Cali
fornia, Nevada, Arizona and other parts of
the west. Many years ago Comptroller Dur
ham decided that the claim ought to be paid,
but refused to sanction it because the sur
veyS had been made on uninhabitabe desert
lands and was mere waste of public money.
Somebody has made mix of this case and
endeavored to put me in false position be-
fore the country, but | repeat again no such
letters were ever written or even suggested
by me to GOV. Hill or anybody else.''
thus saying, the commissioner arose.
and, accompanied by the secretary of the
interior. retired to private room for con-
Sultation.